A Day in the Life of Marion Wright
by Enheduanna of Ur
Summary: Attend the tale of one haphazard, mundane demigoddess and her quest to make it through the day in one piece, mentally. Too bad she lives at Camp Half-Blood: a normal day was never even an option. Comedic OC
1. Wake-up Call

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. Sue me not, Ricky. **

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When Marion woke on that hot summer Sunday, she was not at all prepared to be staring deeply into a pair of overlarge brown eyes.

"Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

Marion twisted in alarm, rolled a little too far to the right, and plummeted five feet to the ground from her snug bunk bed in the Hermes cabin. Lily Amy Jones, her thirteen year old half-sister, had been about an inch from her face.

The elder sister groaned on the floor, gently massaging her left shoulder. Lily, the damn girl, was laughing her head off, having settled comfortably into Marion's bunk.

"Lily… Didn't I tell you not to wake me up like that?" droned Marion, still half-asleep. "Because I seriously remember having that _exact_ conversation."

"Ha! Well you did, but I was just looking! I didn't expect you to wake up," Lily choked out through laughter. "I just wanted to see if you had a lot a lot of freckles, or just a little a lot," At this, Marion raised her eyebrows. "I'm drawing you."

Lily was the only other girl in the Hermes cabin this summer besides Jessica and Nadia. At eighteen, Marion was the oldest of her sisters and second eldest in the whole cabin, after Ryan. And of her sisters, Marion liked Lily best.

Lily was one of those Jack-of-all-Trades kind of people: intelligent, straightforward, and unafraid of a challenge. She had wavy brown hair and big brown eyes, and looked uncannily like her father. She was notorious at camp for being extremely stubborn, which could be either endearing or infuriating. She was constantly trying out new skills as well: apparently the latest of these was drawing.

"Can I see it?" Marion asked wryly, getting up from the floor.

"No!" Lily squealed. "It isn't finished yet!" She went on sketching, purposefully ignoring Marion, who was rolling her eyes. "You should be glad I'm drawing you instead of a cat. Maybe I'll draw you with whiskers instead of freckles."

"Damn girl, what is it with you and cats?"

Lily didn't respond, and Marion decided to get dressed for the day. She strolled over to the dresser next to her bunk, which held the girls' clothes. Inside, she found her favorite pair of denim shorts, but her camp t-shirts were all missing.

Marion visually searched the room for hers, which was difficult because all the camp t-shirts look alike. Man, the room was trashed. Cabin 11 was a wreck, more so than usual. Clothes, trash, and even weapons were everywhere.

The usual bunks were always crowded by hammocks hung in between them, to make room for all the extra campers. People had to duck under them to walk through the room, giving the cabin a crowded, jungly appearance. The Hermes kids were also the only ones to have small safes built into the underside of the bunks (when you live in a den of thieves, it's kind of necessary). And everyone liked to put things on the walls, so the walls were plastered with totally random things: anything from posters to weapons, all hanging on the wall by hooks and tape. Every piece of furniture and every shelf was mismatched, yet seemed to belong. A huge map of the world covered most of one wall, just above the Stoll brothers' bunks, and the campers liked to put pushpins in the places they'd been. Strange items, some salvaged, some stolen, hung from the ceiling like bizarre wind chimes. Kids in the Hermes cabin usually lived like wild, merry vagrants. Marion loved every minute of it, but it made finding missing clothes rather difficult.

When Marion located a shirt she hoped was hers and laced up her sneakers, she grabbed her bag and began to head out the door. She turned, and called out, "Lily, I'm leaving. Can I see the picture now?"

Lily shook her head no, obstinate as ever, and Marion decided to pay Lily back for how she had woken her up that morning.

Marion strolled casually over to her bed, where Lily was still perched. She pivoted slowly toward her younger sister, who wasn't paying any attention. Quick as you please, Marion snatched the paper and bolted toward the door.

Lily's shriek of indignation echoed off the walls. She bounded off the bed after her sister, trying as hard as she could not to trip over all the things on the floor. But Marion wasn't the fastest kid at camp for nothing: she was expertly maneuvering through the room, and made it to the door in record time.

Unfortunately for her, the door swung open and her brothers Connor and Travis burst in. The door hit Marion square-on, and she went crashing to the floor for the second time that morning.

Marion groaned while Lily shrieked with laughter again. The younger girl pounced on the elder one, pinned her to the floor under her weight, and daintily plucked her art from Marion's grip.

"Oh, sorry," Travis said carelessly. Connor said nothing, and randomly began picking up clothes and books. The brothers were clearly agitated. Lily stared at Connor, but Marion ignored his odd behavior and muttered something about knocking first.

"Marion, Lily, get up!" Connor suddenly snapped. "I need your help!"

"What are you talking about, you weirdo?" Marion said.

"It's cabin inspection today!"

Lily gasped, and leapt to her feet. "Crap, that's today!" She began scrambling around, grabbing clothes off the floor and cramming them into the dresser by the bunk beds. Travis took Marion's hand and pulled her from the floor, which was a good thing because the door flew open again to admit Jessica (arms full of windex), Nadia (broom and dustpan at the ready), and Ryan (looking empty-handed and extremely useless).

Marion threw back the rumpled covers on her bed, frantically trying to pull the twisted sheets into lying smoothly. How could she have forgotten the cabin inspection? The other cabins had been getting ready for the last two days. Chiron had been reminding the camp every night at dinner this whole week! How had she forgotten?! More of her cabin-mates shot through the door, and the group cleanup became hectic.

Marion shook the bedcovers, about to pull them up over her sheets, when a pair of scissors flew out and landed on her pillow. She stared at them: really, scissors? In her blankets? How long had they been there?!

Connor was hauling a trash can around the center of the room, collecting trash from everyone's bunks. He took one look at Marion's bemused expression, still staring down at the scissors, and burst out laughing.

"Hey!" Marion shouted indignantly over the din of the cabin. "Whose scissors are these? I slept with these scissors!"

"Has anyone seen my green jacket?"

"Hey Ryan, I found your socks. And I know they're yours because they smell like bat barf."

"Marion did _what_ with a pair of scissors?!"

"Here, this is yours, Jessica. I stole it from you two weeks ago. I wanted to see how long it took you to figure it out."

"Aw come on guys, really? Pizza crusts?"

"Someone take the trip wire out of the bathroom door! And by the way, I call _not_ cleaning the toilets."

There was a moment of dead silence as that job was contemplated by all. Marion's eyes flickered to the door and back as she plotted her escape.

"Nose goes!" Travis suddenly shouted, his own index finger planted firmly on his nose. Marion threw her bag to her bed and smacked her whole palm against her face. The whole cabin followed suit, except for Nadia, who was too busy washing windows to notice the action behind her. However, when she did turn around and saw a roomful of happy campers staring at her, her yell of rage could have been heard on Olympus.

"You guys don't get to decide just because -"

"The nose never lies, Nadia!"

"Oh, the _nose_ never lies, huh? Well what about the _fists_?"

"Yeah..." Marion said to nobody as the argument became heated. "I'm going to work. My bed's made, so... Yep." No one noticed her, so she slung her bag over her shoulder and strolled casually out the door, hoping someone would straighten her shelf.

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_And thus begins the adventures of an OC. I wasn't originally going to post this, but I figured, heck. Why not. Love it, hate it, have an OC that you want me to add to the cast? Let me know. This is a comedy, moments of drama later on, but mostly lighthearted fun. I'd be delighted to hear your comments :) _


	2. Bad Lip Reading

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. Which is good because slavery isn't supported in my country anyway. **

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Marion zipped over to the Mess Hall, where she grabbed a bagel and a little box of orange juice. She ate it on the way out, and made her way through the campgrounds to the Big House. She was sure to put the trash properly in a trash can, to avoid the wrath of the nymphs (although she did love to drop straw wrappers on the ground to rile them up from time to time). As Camp Messenger, Marion handled all of the mail, which was mostly from mortal parents and friends. She also worked with Mr. D, however. That was the part of the job that tended to suck.

"G'morning, Miranda." Mr. D. said through a yawn. Marion, like always, paused for a moment to admire his determinedness to get every camper's name wrong when he truly knew them all perfectly. Quite inspiring, really.

"Mornin', Mr. D."

They set to work on their individual tasks, like they did every morning.

"There's been some schedule changes for tonight. I mapped out the correct sequence on this paper; make sure Chiron gets it."

"Gotcha."

There wasn't a lot of mail that day, but it was all to different cabins. Marion's eyes glazed and her mind wandered as she began the most boring part of her job: sorting it according to cabin. Blah blah blah blah whatever whatever whatever...

"Done!" she chirped triumphantly, gathering it all up and heading for the door.

"Wait a second," Mr. D said. Marion turned back to him, waiting for him to speak. He just stared straight ahead for a minute.

"Did you want to say something, Mr. -"

"Ah, don't interrupt."

He was quiet again. Marion fidgeted.

"But, you weren't even saying anyth -"

"There's more mail in the other room. I forgot to tell you about it."

"Are you serious!?" Marion snarled, before catching herself. "Right. On the table? I'll be right back then." Whether he really forgot or was just being annoying was anyone's guess. Marion left the room.

The pile on the table was considerably smaller than the first, but the girl was still fuming as she snatched it up and quickly put it in order. Then she walked back through the room, passing Mr. D without looking at him (he waved flutteringly before saying, "See you later, Meredith.") and exiting the Big House.

One by one, Marion stopped by each cabin, sticking the mail in the little tin holders next to the door. Each time, she hammered on the door with her customary greeting: "Good morning kiddos, your father/mother says he/she knows what you did this weekend!" She changed it from mother to father depending on the gender of the cabin's mortal parent. It never failed to get at least one kid up and running for the letter, though most just ignored her.

It pleased Marion, as she passed the Hephaestus and Demeter cabins, that the kids inside were scrambling around and shouting. Her cabin wasn't the only one unprepared for the inspection later on.

"Hey, Marion!" She turned and saw Daniel Ackerman, son of Apollo, bounding up to her. "Are you heading past the Ares cabin?"

Marion squinted in the brightening sunlight. "Yeah. Why?"

"Tell Mark something for me?" Daniel tossed his long hair, smiling charmingly at the girl before him in a completely see-through attempt at persuasion.

"Is it official camp business...?"

"...No."

"Then I'm not doing it," Marion said flatly. "Go tell him yourself."

"I have to get back to clean the cabin! Besides, you're heading that way. He borrowed my drumsticks and he hasn't given them back! Tell him to give them back."

"Dude, no. That is not official camp business!"

"Stop acting so cool! You're not that important, you know. Just do this for me?"

Marion stared at him for a minute, eyes narrowed. "I am not going to just...!" Her expression suddenly changed, and settled into a sneaky smile. "Alright. Worded just like that?" Marion said sarcastically. Daniel did not notice her dangerous change in attitude.

"Ha, 'Give them back before I come and stick them up your butt' is more like it." Daniel snickered. "He's horrible at it! It's been driving me crazy. I really should have given him a lesson or two on rhythm. I don't know why I lent them to him."

"Alright then. I'll talk to you later."

"Thanks!" shouted Daniel before retreating into his cabin. Marion strolled off down the path, barely containing her evil grin.

"What are you smirking at?"

Marion squealed before spinning around. Her friend Kara Newburn smiled at her, her blonde hair in two braids that made her look sweet. (Well, admittedly, Kara looked sweet in just about anything. She was eighteen and gorgeous).

"Don't surprise me like that! Why aren't you cleaning with your cabin?"

"You're doing something you shouldn't be. Wanna know how I know? First, no one walks down the street just smiling to themselves. Second, you can always hear me coming - unless you're too lost in your own head to pay attention."

"You didn't answer my question, Kara." Marion deflected.

"We're done cleaning. Everything's ready in the Aphrodite cabin."

"You guys suck."

Kara laughed while Marion pouted. "So what's got you guffawing to yourself?"

"I do not guffaw! I chuckle melodiously. And as for my plans, well, you'll see later. Right now I'm going to see Chiron. Come with?" Marion asked. The blonde girl nodded, and they made their way down to the sword arena, where they knew the centaur would be.

"Hi, Chiron!"

Chiron turned and smiled at the two girls. "No swords today? You two have been slacking off lately, you know." They grinned sheepishly.

"Been busy!" Kara said. "We'll come by later after Marion's done with the mail, and she's done helping her cabin clean."

Marion muttered under her breath, "It would go faster if I had a little blonde girl to help me get stuff done..." But Kara only laughed at the suggestion. Chiron frowned.

"Marion, are you telling me the Hermes cabin isn't ready for inspection? I've been reminding the whole camp about it for days."

"Sorry..." Marion said, staring at her shoes. "We'll get it done."

"I hope so, for your sake."

"Yeah," Kara added sneakily. "Any more duties and you won't have time to practice swords anymore. I'll overtake you."

"Oh, in your dreams, you ditz."

"You take that back! I am _not_ a ditz!"

As the friends began bickering, Chiron rolled his eyes. He began to trot away to oversee the training of a few preteens, but Marion dashed after him to give him the updated schedule from Mr. D. Kara and Marion were heading back up the hill to the cabins when they came upon a young man with curly black hair, freckled dark skin, and brown eyes partially hidden by thick glasses. Marion went pink.

"Hi Gideon," she said, cursing her natural inclination to blush at everything.

"Hey Marion. No swords today?" Gideon Cramer asked with a good-natured smile. He wasn't particularly handsome, but he had a sincerely warmhearted look about him. He was one year older than Marion. His hands were always dirty, and his glasses were always clean. Marion had had a crush on him for years.

"Ah, not right now," Marion said, looking around for her suddenly (suspiciously) absent friend. "Lots to do today! My cabin is full of idiots. And it's a mess."

"Yeah, we weren't ready either. Cleaning got too crowded though, so I left."

As the conversation lulled, Marion spotted Kara in the distance over Gideon's shoulder, mouthing something. Marion struggled to read her friend's lips. What was she saying? Kara was mouthing something that looked like... F... Fl...

"Flowers! Yeah. You like those, don't you?" Marion blurted awkwardly.

Gideon gave her a strange look. "Yes... I'm a son of Demeter. I do tend to like plants."

In the distance, Kara was facepalming repeatedly.

"Yes. Great thing to like, flowers," Marion babbled, blushing harder at the stupidity of the conversation. "I think keeping gardens alive takes a special sort of talent. Some talent I don't have." She glared at Kara, and Gideon turned around to see what she was looking at. Kara ducked behind a bush. Gideon was smiling when he turned back around, as though he knew.

"The only talent it takes is patience," he said gently.

Marion snickered. "Oh yeah, that would be the thing I don't have."

Gideon laughed, and clapped her on the shoulder. "You are _so_ ridiculous, Marion. See you later? I promised my cabin I'd only be gone an hour or so."

"Yeah, sounds like a plan! See you, Gideon."

As the boy made his way downhill to the arena, the girl marched upwards to the path again. Kara jumped out of her bush to walk beside her.

"... _Flowers_?!"

"You told me to!"

"I said _flirt_, you idiot! Not _flowers_!" Kara sighed melodramatically. "What am I going to do with you, Marion? I leave you alone with your crush and you talk about flowers."

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not as romantically talented as you are! I get really nervous, okay?"

"Out of all things, you bring up the one thing his cabin is famous for. Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'Leave work at work'? That would be like Gideon going up to you and asking how the messenger business was. Totally unromantic."

"Hey, if he'd asked that, I'd have told him about the message I'm about to give to Mark. It would have been funny. The conversation would have taken off from there."

"You are going to be a crazy cat lady when you're old."

"No, my sister Lily is. I'm going to be your wingman forever; at least I'm good at that." Marion pouted, kicking a pebble down the path in front of them.

The friends walked in companionable silence for a bit before Kara added, "I do think he's into you though. He always smiles like a freakin' sunbeam when you're around."

"Really?" Marion's mood rebounded. "You're not just saying that to make me feel better, are you?"

"No! Seriously. I can read boys like books, Marion."

"Good thing you're my friend. I read boys like ancient Japanese inscriptions."

Kara snorted. "You don't speak Japanese."

"That's the point, goof."

"You're the goof. Flower girl."

"Shut up, that was your fault!"


	3. Different Kind of Intelligence

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, suggestive drumsticks, or a cute polka-dot bikini. **

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They came upon the Ares cabin. After depositing a couple of letters in the tin box, shouting, "Good morning kiddos, your mother says she knows what you did this weekend!" and hearing (with satisfaction) the gasp and thud of someone running to the door, Marion asked if Mark Bradshaw was in.

As a broad-shouldered, auburn-haired young man filled the doorway, Marion launched into her message, "Daniel Ackerman wants me to tell you that you're driving him wild, he wants to teach you a thing or two about proper, ah, rhythm, and that he wants to do kinky things to your butt with his drumstick. Got it?"

"..._What_?"

"Got it? Good. I'll see you later, Mark."

Marion swung the door shut and began making her merry way down the path. Behind her, Kara was laughing hysterically.

"That's not what he told you to tell Mark, is it."

"It wasn't official camp business."

"Boy, Marion, when you make a point... You really make a point."

The two reached the end of the path, and Kara turned around. "I'll see you later, Marion. I promised Will I'd meet him down by the lake at noon for lunch." Will Solace, head of the Apollo cabin, was her boyfriend (as of this week, though Will had outlasted many of Kara's old boyfriends already.)

Surprised that the day had flown by as quickly as it had, Marion gazed up at the sky. Sure enough, the sun was directly overhead. She hadn't seemed to realize how hungry she was. Rather than enter her own cabin, which was still looking a little hectic, Marion decided to backtrack to the mess hall for some food.

Inside, it was crowded as ever. She nabbed herself some food and sat down at Cabin 11's designated table. It was empty.

Marion hated the designated table rule. In her opinion, it promoted cabin hostility. (Well, that was the official reason she gave. In truth, Marion was always a little early or a little late to lunch due to her job, and she was always eating alone. She hated it.)

Munching on her ham sandwich, Marion considered packing up her food and eating by the lake with Kara and Will, third-wheeling like a boss. But was it really worth it to have lunch company if they were too busy making out to talk to you? Maybe Gideon would want to eat lunch with her...

"Hi, Marion!"

Marion winced as her name was shouted across the Mess Hall. Heads turned, and Marion blushed again, resisting the urge to shout, 'Nothing to see here, people!'

"Hey Anthony, what's up?" she said with a gentle smile. "Having a productive day?"

"I sure am! I learned some _wicked_ sword moves today. You have to come see them!" the gangly son of Dionysus shouted again. Marion rolled her eyes.

"Come over here if you want to talk, Anthony. People are staring."

Anthony bounded over, nearly tripping over his shoelaces, the epitome of awkward. The kid was thirteen years old and in the rough throes of puberty, which wasn't being kind to him. Marion knew one day Anthony would be handsome, but right now his blonde hair was poofy and uncontrollable, he was too tall and skinny, and his acne was out of control (prompting the nickname Pepperoni Face, which he hated.)

Anthony didn't sit down, afraid of breaking the rules, preferring to hover around the table. Marion, one of the few older campers to actually acknowledge him in a non-teasing manner, suspected that he was a little enamored with her. "So, we need to schedule some swords time so I can show you my new moves! I picked it up really fast, they said."

"Awesome, dude. Let's fit that in this week, huh?"

Anthony lit up, nearly spilling his drink. "_Absolutely_! Like, Wednesday? After lunch?"

"Sounds like a plan! But you'd better go eat, I think your table is calling."

Behind him, Anthony's brothers and sisters were beckoning him back to their table. He waved at her as he joined them, then launched into conversation with one of his sisters, probably telling her all about his new sword technique.

At least his siblings were usually kind to him: Marion always felt a little personally responsible when he ran across the meaner kids and came out with scraped knuckles and a black eye. Sure, he was a little annoying, but he was a good kid. Marion made sure that people did not pick on Anthony when she was around.

Hearing about Anthony's new trick made Marion even more conscious that it had been a while since she herself had practiced swords. She hadn't meant to slack off. She'd just been extremely busy lately. Marion made up her mind to practice that night, after work.

Camp Half-Blood was at war, after all. Her brother's army wasn't resting, and Marion knew she shouldn't be either.

She finished her food alone and left the Mess Hall, headed for the Big House. Mr. D wasn't there, but there was a note addressed to her on the table:

Margaret, some tasks: bring the new baskets to the strawberry fields, locate the campers selected to inspect cabins and give them the criteria sheet, and talk to the Apollo kids about not playing instruments past 9:30. We've been getting more complaints. Thanks - Mr. D.

Marion picked up the stack of brand-new baskets, inhaling their sweet, fresh scent. She loved the smell of new baskets. She folded the criteria sheets in her bag, and headed out. Though it would have been practical to drop the baskets off before going about the other tasks, the Apollo cabin was closer than the fields. Marion hated backtracking. So she knocked on the door of the cabin, and asked for Will.

He came to the door quickly. "What's up, Marion?"

"Mr. D told me to tell your cabin that we've had more complaints about music too late at night. 9:30's the cutoff. You guys know that." Marion said rather sternly. She had some personal stakes in this: she'd once been awoken by a lone, dramatic violin at 2:00 A.M.

"Sorry," Will blushed. "I'll crack down on them. Also, Mark Bradshaw has been avoiding Daniel Ackerman like the plague; do you have anything to do with that?"

"I have everything to do with that." Marion said seriously. "Tell Daniel not to send me on silly errands, and maybe I won't accidentally turn his messages into sexy love letters. And no, I won't sort this out for them."

"Ah. Okay. I'll tell him that."

Next, Marion made for the strawberry fields. The kids there were grateful for the new baskets, because theirs were falling apart. Marion looked around for Gideon, but he wasn't there. She figured he must still be in his cabin. She tried not to be put out by this.

Next, Marion had to locate both Clarisse and Lacy, who were up for inspecting cabins. She hated finding campers. They could be anywhere!

Marion decided to use her head, rather than running all over camp in vain. Lacy first: what did she know about Lacy...? She was Kara's sister and mini-me, an Aphrodite girl with blonde hair and a completely lovable attitude. She was connected at the hip to her son-of-Ares boyfriend Zach (a solid, long-lasting kind of relationship, unlike Kara's cheery flings). Zach was kind of temperamental, but only because he was always too hot. He liked winter better than summer because he couldn't really handle heat... Kara told Marion all about how Lacy's new thing was polka-dots, how she had a new skirt with them, a new bathing suit, a cute headband...

Think, Marion...

And suddenly, she had it! They would be down by the water, swimming. Zach would be beating the heat by swimming, and his together-forever girlfriend would be tagging along, happily teasing him with her brand-new polka-dotted swimsuit.

Marion skipped a little on her way to the dock, proud of her newfound deductive skills. They weren't actually there, but she knew it would only be a matter of time. She splashed some cool water on her face. This is where Kara and Will met for lunch, she thought pensively. What is this, the new lovers' lane? The view is ok, I guess. Bet the sunset's lovely from here.

Instead of waiting for them on the dock like a normal person, Marion decided to lie in wait in a nearby bush, and jump out to scare them.

"I can't wait to get in the water; it's gonna feel so good. I've been roasting all day."

"I can't either. I have a new swimsuit! I think you'll like it. And I packed some cookies, double chocolate chip!"

"Mmm, that's my favorite kind! Lacy, you're the best."

"Here, hold the cookies while I take my clothes off."

"Ooh... My _pleasure_..."

"Zach, haha, stop it! Someone might hear!"

"No one's around to hear, angel!"

"... So, do you like it, baby?"

"Well, you know I love anything you wear baby, but... Damn, that one looks good."

"Aww, you make me blush, darling!"

"I love you, honey-bear."

"And I love _you_, sugar-bean."

Marion vomited a little, in her mind.

"Here, I'll take the cookies back now, Zach We can eat them after we swim. Wouldn't want to cramp up while we're in the water, now would we?"

"Good thinking, cutie pie."

Marion shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, wiggling her rear. Readying herself.

"Spare a quick kiss, Lacy-love?"

"Oh, I can more than _spare_, hot stuff... C'mere..."

Marion pounced!

There were twin squeals of indignation as Zach and Lacy, an inch from lip contact, stumbled backwards and plummeted off the edge of the dock and into the water. Marion howled with laughter as they spluttered in the water, reeling in shock as well as the chill of the lake. They'd pulled themselves back onto the dock, sopping wet and steaming mad.

"Marion, what the hell!?" Lacy spat. "Look at me, I'm soaked!"

"You're wearing a bathing suit, Lacy. What's wrong with that?" Marion giggled. "I left the criteria sheet for cabin inspection on your cookies. Can I have one?"

"No," Zach said in a much deeper tone than he'd used with Lacy. "And you'd better get lost, because if you weren't a girl I'd knock you all the way to Olympus."

"Ah, Zach, I didn't mean to pick a fight. Least of all not with you, what do you think I am, suicidal?" Zach relaxed a little. "I just get jealous when girls look better in bikinis than I do. That is _darling_, by the way, Lacy."

In spite of her anger, Lacy smiled. "Thanks. Got it this spring."

"Where?"

"It's a little place in my hometown called Summer Romance: it's as good as designer, I swear, but really affordable! And practical too."

"Looks like it! Well, I'm off, remember your inspection, Lacy."

"Bye! Try not to cockblock anyone else on your way back!" Zach laughed, prompting Lacy to swat him in a delightedly prim way, and Marion to chuckle again.

There were some things Marion was good at, and some things she wasn't. She wasn't good at swimming, gardening, being patient when she was anxious, or being rational when she was angry. (She also wasn't as good-looking in a bathing suit as Lacy: that bit about jealousy wasn't a lie). She wasn't good at being quiet, arm-wrestling, or flirting.

She _was_ good at talking her way out of situations, though.

Such as a demigod couple that was very angry and very drippy (in more ways than one). All they needed was a little bit of flattery, a little reminder that it had only been a joke. A nudge in the right direction.

Marion wasn't a deep thinker like Gideon, or an intuitive thinker like Kara. But she was a fast thinker, and that's just as valuable if seldom as appreciated.

One inspector down and one more to go: Marion continued on her hunt.

Clarisse was a little tougher to find. Marion looked all around, but she wasn't at the Mess Hall, the sword arena, or the strawberry fields. She wasn't in her cabin either. Marion finally found the daughter of Ares beneath Thalia's pine, her spear Maimer on her knees. She looked a little sad.

"Hey, Clarisse? Uh, here, this is the criteria sheet for cabin inspection. You're up next."

"Oh, right. Did I make you look all over camp for me? I'm sorry."

Clarisse apologizing was unlike her. "Are you ok, Clarisse?"

The daughter of Ares smiled, but it was only in her mouth and not her eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

"No problem." Marion started to walk back toward camp when Clarisse spoke again.

"Hey, Marion? Have you ever cared about someone, and couldn't do anything to help them? Like, they were in pain, and it had been a long time, and you couldn't do anything?"

Marion was completely taken aback. "Well, yeah, I guess. I lost my mom when I was little, and then a foster-family that had adopted me. I live here year-round, you know."

"What happened?"

"Well..." Marion wasn't comfortable talking about it, but Clarisse seemed to need some kind of advice. "I was so little when my mom died... I don't really remember trying to help her, though she certainly needed it. And my foster-family died so quickly, in a house fire... I don't think I've been in quite your situation. Who are you talking about? Can I help?"

"No!" Clarisse answered quickly. "I was just wondering. Never mind."

"Are you sure you're alright, Clarisse?"

"Fine." She answered, and her voice had regained it's usual steel, so Marion left.

On her way back to the rest of camp, Marion felt weighed down. Whatever Clarisse had needed, she'd not been able to give. Who was Clarisse talking about, someone she cared about that was in pain? Was she talking about a family member, or a fellow camper? Literal pain or emotional pain? But none of that mattered if Clarisse wasn't willing to tell who it was. And bringing up her family had darkened Marion's spirits.

But one thing was sure to cheer her up: her swords. Physical activity to give her some endorphins, and practice like she should be every day. She decided to squeeze in an hour of sparring before dinner, and then she would head back to the Big House for the final assignments of the day.

However, getting her swords meant going into the one place she'd been avoiding all morning: her cabin. Earlier, it had been a madhouse. But now, as she neared it cautiously, it was quiet.

Too quiet.

Tentatively, Marion pushed open the door (stepping back briefly, just in case there was a bucket of water perched on the door. She'd fallen for that once: never again, she'd promised herself). But to her surprise, the cabin was empty.

And _spotless_.

The beds were made, the floor swept clean, and the shelves neatened (including her own, Marion noted with delight). The windows were washed and clear, and the whole room smelled fresh and clean. Even the bathroom sparkled.

Normally, it took ages to locate her swords through the clutter of Cabin 11. Today, they were situated neatly on the wall-hooks beside her bunk, complete with their hip-sheaths. Marion noted that the scissors she'd found in her bed that morning were hung on the hook as well. Who they belonged to, she had no idea.

She situated Thing One and Thing Two at her hips, and left.


End file.
